Rate My Professor Tzu Phang

Tzu Phang, PhD, serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics-Heme/Onc and Bone Marrow Transplantation at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, School of Medicine. He is also recognized as Associate Professor of Bioinformatics, with faculty appointment in the Human Medical Genetics and Genomics PhD program where his research focus is Genomics Bioinformatics. Phang directs the Graduate Certificate in Biomedical Data Science through the Graduate School and leads the Translational Informatics Computational Resources (TICR) at the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine in the Department of Medicine. As an affiliate member of the CU Cancer Center's Tumor-Host Interactions program and Pediatric Hematology General Operations, he contributes to interdisciplinary efforts in pediatric hematology, oncology, and genomic research. In addition to his research roles, Phang teaches data science to demystify complex analyses for researchers, advises on experimental design and dataset management across campus, and hosts a bi-weekly bioinformatics journal club every other Friday.

Phang's academic interests center on bioinformatics applications in genomics, high-throughput data analysis, and personalized medicine, reflected in his prolific publication record. Notable contributions include co-authoring 'A Naturally Occurring Gain-of-Function Mutation in Factor VIII' (New England Journal of Medicine, 2025), 'Loss of LDOC1 by chromatin compaction in mesenchymal tumor cells is required for PFA1 ependymoma growth' (Neuro-Oncology, 2025), 'Multi-pronged analysis of pediatric low-grade glioma and ganglioglioma reveals a unique tumor microenvironment associated with BRAF alterations' (Brain Pathology, 2025), and 'Building a vertically integrated genomic learning health system: The biobank at the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine' (American Journal of Human Genetics, 2024). Earlier works encompass 'Single-cell RNA sequencing and binary hierarchical clustering define lung interstitial macrophage heterogeneity in response to hypoxia' (American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, 2022), 'JMJD5 couples with CDK9 to release the paused RNA polymerase II' (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020), and 'Glucocorticoid Receptor ChIP-Seq Identifies PLCD1 as a KLF15 Target that Represses Airway Smooth Muscle Hypertrophy' (American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, 2017). His research supports advancements in cancer genomics, pulmonary hypertension, hemophilia, and learning health systems, fostering collaborations in pediatrics, oncology, and public health at CU Anschutz.